Friday, 29 February 2008

Doing too Much! Plus Woad, Genista and seeds.

I am doing too much.These are all the things I am doing if I list them I might be able to see what can be dropped. I feel that if I was doing Master Chef ( if you are not in the UK and reading this just don't ask it is too complicated!) I would be told to focus and that dyeing does not get harder than this!OkayProjects on the go I am enjoying doing.Inks-on the back burner at the moment but I had a big read of David Carvalho (40 centuries of ink) while waiting for a friend to get through her physiotherapy. I have taken notes and which need to be transcribed onto the computer as they are in two different if not three notebooks, I now want to try the recipe for black ink that includes logwood.Fermenting Dyes and slow dyeing I really enjoy doing this as it is:a. Possible to leave stuff fermenting for days on my hotplatesb. It is really ecofriendlyc. It appeals to my desire to experimentd. I want to write a booklet about ite. Most importantly the colours seem so rich

Natural Dyeing using the extract dyesI was one of the first people in the UK to use these and one of the few as a far as I aware who uses them to paint fibres and fabrics. However there are plenty of people who are using them now and I want to keep abreast of it all. I want to write a booklet on this as a part of the series ( Colours of the Earth, Colour of the Sea and Sky being the other two)I am trying out all sorts of mixtures and it is the keeping of records and photographing the results that takes time however when I wrote the indigo book last year I had a wonderful time really enjoyed myself but it did take about three months of fairly intensive work. It was just after my father died and because I had been looking after him I did not have much work it only really picked up in April & May.School Projects However I now have two school projects one on Celtic brooches/celtic inspired pencil cases. and one a community project both a week long. I can 't drop these and am committed to them and I need to start ordering fibres and making samples. On is in March one in AprilWhat else- well a one day workshop with kids dyeing fibres and making celtic brooches in March, A brand new workshop Felt Sketchbooks in May for which I need to do some more work, getting a stall ready for the Regional day at Liverpool being run by Embroiderers in April and also the two day event Wonderwool at the end of April for which I not only need to make up packs and kit but also all the associated stuff-leaflets etc.As I write this I start to feel quite panicky ! I am not sure that I have done much more than freak myself out and I either cannot drop a anything or don't want too!

Oh well!

Enys dropped off the list of seeds she has ordered for the dye garden. Fortunately all I have to do is read the list and make admiring noises.Baptisia australisDyers camomilePodophyllumAsceplias Tuberosa - don't ask! I can't find this in my dye books but Enys says that her herbal books say this is a dye plant.WeldmadderCoreopiscalliopsisIndigoferaAsarum EuropWoadGenista TinctoriaBlack pansies - I grew these last year ( well Enys grows them I just use them!)as a friend Annee Silk told me about them. They give a beautiful fabulous rich blue colour but not very lightfast but I want to try again and weather permitting try solar dyeing with them.Annee has already sent me chinese woadIncidentally my genista is coming into flower. Ilove Genista Tinctoria- this last two years it has given a fabulous colour as strong as weld but I have now used all of last years.

And today I dyed with this years new season of woad leaves and got a pale blue with two good handful of leaves and on about 25g of wool tops. see ! I should have been doing boring stuff like my accounts but I could not help trying out the leaves to see whether they would give a decent colour this early in the year.

7 comments:

I have the same problem, but I am not brave enough to do a list:) That would propably be a good idea, so then it gets sorted out in my head and then I get more done. Like you, I have things I should do and then things I would like to do = all the dyeing experiments. Please, don't drop the fermenting, that is interesting to hear about. There is so little information and experiences of it available.

I don't have a big dye garden, but I have bought seeds of madder and Indigofera tinctoria and I have some old Isatis tinctoria seeds left. I haven't found seeds of Polygonum tinctoria anywhere, do you know a place that sells them?You have some interesting plants seeds in your list which I didn't know you could use for dyeing.

Hi leena - I am so glad that other people ahve the same problem! Actaully having made the lsit -which I felt was a bit self indulgent- I felt calmer and more in control.I think we ( that is Enys and I) have japanese ploygonum seeds Enys say she has lots of little planta of it growing up so if we do not have it now we should do at the end of the summer and I am more than happy to send you some. The reason that we may have dyeplants you have not heard of is that Enys who does this side of things is a herbalist and often buys plants that herbal books say are dye plants. Soemtimes they are and sometimes they are not! However I ahve learn to be more humble , a few years ago I would have told her with absolute authority soemthing was not a dye plant. Now I know that I have so much still to learn I say well I will try it out! Thanks for your comments about the fermenting. The persian berries just gave a vibrant yellow no sign of a green with alum, but the alderbuckthorn bark with a woodash with a high pH ( 11) is prodcuing a blood red. So it is all very interesting.

Helen, did you use the persian berries fresh or dried? I tried my own last year and made a yellow with unripe fresh berries - but a very strong grassy green with very ripe fresh ones! I picked as many as I could and froze them; we'll see how those turn out! also I know asclepias as a plant that has long seed fibres - I tried to grow them (there are a few other species in that family, all with differing long fibres on the seeds) for use in spinning!I did buy quite a lot of seeds for dye plants, www.ruehlemanns.de used to offer seeds of polygonum tinctorium! and yes, I followed Annee's advice and dyed with the flowers of "black" violas - and they do give lovely colours! another successful dye was the blue flowers of early flowering irises - they gave a nice mint green. so much to grow and so much to try - if you can try to grow yellow cosmos (cosmos sulphureus)! they are only annuals, but they give fantastic oranges and yellows! happy dyeing - and I know how you feel with too much to do and too little time - it's the same for me just now.....

the amusing thing about the black viola dyes is that when used on clothing you'll find that (with washing) the colour gradually changes to a bright leaf green...presumably due to pos-mordanting by the washing solution. i've monitored this over the past 8 years and have come to the conclusion it is the sodium carbonate (as common ingredient in detergents) that is responsible.best wishes,India Flint

Last weekend I was checking my dye plant seed packets and trying to think what it was I'd wanted to grow that was missing, I knew there was something else to try - thank to your list I now know, it's Coreopsis!

Does Enys have any tips on when to plant the different seeds, and care of the seedlings? I was wondering if they all need frost protection, or if some are tough enough to cope without? Last frost in this part of the world is often mid to late May.

Hi I'm Enys and Helen has asked me to give a few comments on the growing of the dye plants. I'm always finding more information in old books on herbalism which I collect, and when I find a dye plant, I grow it and tell Helen she just has to use it - she is very patient and will usually humour me!Most of the dye plants are wild flowers/plants so are relatively easy to grow from seed. The only seeds that I have a problem with are Indigofera tinctoria. The first time I managed to grow 3, the second time 8 with very careful nurturing. this year I'm going to put them in the heated propagator, once my husbands tomato, aubergine, and pepper are out of it. All I do with other seeds are ow them in seed trays and pot on as they grow. I'm very lucky to a 49 foot long greenhouse so I'm not pushed for space and my garden is huge. Peter my husband gets a little annoyed with the woad which tends to grow where he wants to plant his veg. I guess he can't keep rotavating around them Helen's garden has examples of all the plants which I grow along with various others which I allow her to grow eg roses, lilies, and bulbs for spring colour (I have to humour her sometimes - works both ways.Before Helen I teamed up I'd always grown dye plants and herbs with the vague idea of actually using them so it was a gift from Mother Earth when I met Helen. If anyone wants any more info, I'm happy to help

Hi I'm Enys and Helen has asked me to give a few comments on the growing of the dye plants. I'm always finding more information in old books on herbalism which I collect, and when I find a dye plant, I grow it and tell Helen she just has to use it - she is very patient and will usually humour me!Most of the dye plants wild flowers/plants so a relatively easy to grow from seed. The only seeds that I have a problem with are Indigofera tinctoria. The first time I managed to grow 3, the second time 8 with very careful nurturing. this year I'm going to put them in the heated propagator, once my husbands tomato, aubergine, and pepper are out of it. All I do with other seeds are ow them in seed trays and pot on as they grow. I'm very lucky to a 49 foot long greenhouse so I'm not pushed for space and my garden is huge. Peter my husband gets a little annoyed with the woad which tends to grow where he wants to plant his veg. I guess he can't keep rotavating around them Helen's garden has examples of all the plants which I grow along with various others which I allow her to grow eg roses, lilies, and bulbs for spring colour (I have to humour her sometimes - works both ways.Before Helen I teamed up I'd always grown dye plants and herbs with the vague idea of actually using them so it was a gift from Mother Earth when I met Helen. If anyone wants any more info, I'm happy to help